Search this site: 

 

Ono no Komachi, KKS:1104, IM:115 (Names of Things)

On Okinoi Miyakojima. 
                More heart-wrenching than
              To sear my body with live coals
                Against my flesh,
              Bidding farewell on Miyakoshima's shore
              As you part for the capital.
                       (Tr. Sarah M. Strong)
                       ***
                More bitter than the anguish
              Of flesh seared by fiery coals
                Is this parting at Miyakoshima,
              One to go to the capital
              And one to remain on a lonely shore.
                       (Tr. Helen Craig McCullough)
                       ***
                More bitter than the anguish
              Of flesh seared by fiery coals
                Is this parting --
              One to remain in the capital
              And one to visit lonely shores.
                       (Tr. Helen Craig McCullough, KKS)
The preface in "Ise Monogatari" says, "Once a man and a woman lived together in the province of Michinoku. The man told the woman that he was about to depart for the capital. The news was heart-wrenching for the woman, but she thought that they should at least have a proper farewell party, and so at Okinoite Miyakoshima she gave him wine to drink and composed this song." (Tr. Sarah M. Strong.)

The version in "Kokinshû" differs in that the speaker remains in the capital, while the other leaves for the shores (see second translation), and does not fit the IM context.

In some IM texts, there is a happy ending: "The man was so impressed that he stayed there." (In IM, Tr. Helen Craig McCullough, p. 252)